Help! I have had a rotten egg blow out, well it didnt blow up but it sort of cracked open and oozed into the bottom of 'incy. The problem is 10 of the eggs are due to hatch tomorrow! The other 22 are due out 4 days from then. Should I put the eggs in something to keep them warm and sterilise everything? Or is that to much of a risk with the eggs so close to hatch?

Last edited by QuailCrazyUSA on Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:33 pm; edited 1 time in total

I had the same problem a few months ago, but unfortunately a lot earlier in the incubation. Yuk!

I would do a quick clean of any egg that has been near the bad egg and the area around it. Get all the stuff you need ready so you can limit the time out of the incy. If you have an egg sanitiser, quickly dip them in a warm solution with that and wipe the shell with clean tissue.

Hi Andy, hi Keef,Fortunately none of the other eggs got any on them, and the area affected by the rotten one is quite small. Perhaps an area a little larger than a jap egg, I think i'm going to clean the bottom tray of 'incy, hopefully this wont affect anything

Oops to late, I removed the eggs and put them with the water bottle in newspaper. Coverd them well and then cleaned the bottom tray of 'incy. The whole process took about 10 minutes. 2 of the eggs smelled bad and sure enough when cracked open they were rotten. The rest had a nice clean smell, hard to describe fresh? wholesome? Best of all I think some of the ten due tomorrow moved on their own when placed back in 'incy.

Some of my broodies are off the nest for over 10 minutes - think it's even supposed to improve the hatch rate if eggs cool for 10-20 mins every day. I just leave mine in incy til they are ready to pop tho. Hope they all hatch for you.

Oh I hope so too! If they dont it's back to the drawing board. I have incubated a little over a hundred eggs now, counting the 30 in 'incy presently. I have hatched out 6 birds total out of all those eggs 1 jap and 5 cpq, and only 1 a hen! This batch was to be the good one. Just before they went in I modified 'incy, added a fan replaced the digital thermometer etc. etc. 'Incy has never ran so well. Before the modifications the temp went up and down on the hour! Now it runs a smooth 99.5-100 Farenheit. Dead on! I'm actually starting to get a little excited, instead of being filled with dread like the last 2 batches.